Egg Cool to the Touch??

Unknown

Hi to all you eggheads. I come asking for some advice. I am looking at the egg, and almost have my wife talked into it. She still prefers a gas grill over the egg style grill, but I am trying to talk her out of it.

One of her main concerns with the egg is if the ceramic gets too hot. I was told that when you use the egg, the outer ceramic is cool to the touch, but I just don't see how that is possible. Can you people that have eggs tell me if that is true or not? If when you get the grill to 500 degrees, I just don't see how the outside could be cool, but if I am wrong, please let me know. Thanks!
Jakie

WessB

I wouldn't say "cool" to the touch...but you can have the egg burning at 500° for many hours and put your hand on it without being burned...really don't think you would leave it there long tho... ..you cant say that about any metal grill....the longer the burn time the warmer the outside will get no matter what cooking temp you use...it makes a great hand warmer in the winter..

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

it's not "cool", but i can tell you, when my egg says 750, i can touch the egg with the palm of my hand briefly. try that on a metal grill, and you will burn your hand.

in a metal grill, most of the heat is radiated away from the cook by the hot metal lid. not so with the egg.

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

holy schmokes wess i wrote the same thing you did, including the quotes around "cool"....

hahahaha
great minds? hmmm. not sure.

Misippi Egger

Jakie,

Tweev is correct in that the outside of a 400-500* egg is hot, but you can safely (briefly) touch it. But compared to a gas grill at 500*, it is much cooler. You will not leave a piece of skin behind on the Egg like you will if you touch a 500* metal grill!

There are too many other advantages to the Egg over a gas grill - like the best grilled food you've ever had - and consistently so, no matter what the outside weather is doing! :woohoo: :woohoo:

WessB

Dem planets are alignin...LOL

Bacchus

When I'm doing really hot cooks like Pizza at 600deg, I like to touch my tongue to the egg about 6-8" below the felt line.

fishlessman

it gets hot but not so hot to get a bad burn, never seen anyone get a burn from touching an egg here and if they did they probably would have posted it, every thing gets posted here :laugh: the gas grill gets alot hotter. i can hold my hand on the dome thru normal cooking temps but not at extended really high pizza temps, some here cook pizzas in the 600 range, a few in the 900 degree range, and one idiot in the 1200 degree range its hot at 1200 degrees, real hot, you wouldnt want to touch it then

vidalia1

:blink: :pinch: :S :huh: :blink: :pinch:

Unknown

Wow, thanks for the FAST replies everyone. Sounds like in the middle. Not cool to the touch, but not scorching hot either. Thanks again everyone. Now I just have to talk the wifie into it!

The Naked Whiz

If you do a quick cook, the outside of the Egg will be warm. If you do a longer or hotter cook, the outside of the Egg will get to be too hot to touch. I once kept an Egg at 400 degrees for 2.5 hours. At the end of the 2.5 hours, the surface temperature of the Egg was 245 degrees near the top. Lower on the dome near the opening it was 180 degrees. That is way to hot to comfortably touch for more than an instant. But like has been said already, compared to a metal cooker, it's a lot safer since you have time to feel the heat and react before any serious damage is done.

gdenby

I have an infrared laser thermometer, and I used it to test the outside of the Egg during a medium temperature cook. From memory, the dome was about 110. Down at the level where the coals were burning, the temp was more like 180. Touch confirmation was that the top was like touching warm water, and the lower place was not quite enough to make me flinch. The reason the heat is less than you might expect is that there is an inner fire box where the coals are burning, then an air shell, and then the outer shell. Maybe more than an 1 1/4" of high fire ceramic to act as a shield.

Sooner Egg

:laugh:

Grandpas Grub

 
I don't know the context of your conversation. I would be very hard pressed to say the egg is going to be cool when in use.

You are probably not going to have your egg at 500° or higher for a very long time other than cooking several pizza's. At those temperatures the dome will be extremely warm to very warm to hot. I can put my hands on the dome but wouldn't leave my hands there for much more than 15 to 30 seconds. Hot but no burning.

When cooking at normal food cooking temperatures, say below 400° which will be most of the time. The egg will be warm to very warm. Your hands could stay on the egg for some time, and although the outside ceramics could be hot I don't think there would be any urgency to pull your hands off and no burning as such.

A casual touch is not a problem. I do keep the younger grand kids away from the eggs unless I am attentive to them and warning them it is warm/hot.

The egg will be nothing as compared to a gas grill at the same cooking temperatures.

On very long cooks 4 to 6 hours and up or hot pizza cooks the lower metal vent can become hot. I am always careful to use a glove when shutting down.

GG

Dimple's Mom

It's not cool, but as everyone else has said, not so hot that anyone is going to get burns. I've never been burned by an Egg (can anyone say that about their oven?) nor have I ever heard of anyone being burned.

Doug in Eggmonton

I've never been burned by touching the ceramic of the egg, but 500 degrees can still find ways to burn you if you are not careful. Flashback being the number one...

Doug

Dimple's Mom

I wasn't going to bring that up, just in case his wife was reading these! I got a little singe on Sat when I was doing ribs. No flames that I could see, just a big 'whoosh' of hot hair and then my cooking partner telling me I might want to go look in the mirror. :laugh:

Doug in Eggmonton

I was (continue to be???) a complete idiot about 10 months ago, had little lump left and it was lighting slow, so I had the (DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME) "brilliant" idea of puring a little alcohol down to the middle of the lump, while I usually lit in three places around the outside. So anyway poured it in then the second, real, mistake happened I looked down the hole to see why it wasn't lighting. It wasn't lighting because it was vaporizing, then exploding and shooting right out the top and all around my head. Lost both eyebrows, most of the hair covering the bald spot and gave myself a very uncomfortable sunburn level burn on my face. All in all very lucky.

The equivalent of what I did on the egg could easily be done by not getting a gas grill lit in time.

Morel of the story flammables, like knives, are great tools but deserve our respect.

Doug

Carolina Q

Bottom line is, the egg (or any charcoal grill) is a bit more of a pain to light than gas. And a little messier. It gets hot to the touch too, though apparently not AS hot (don't remember - haven't had a gasser in about 20-30 years).

But none of that matters. It's all about the food and the food you cook on a gasser WILL NOT be anywhere near as good as what you cook on the egg. It just won't.

llrickman

I actually find my BGE MUCH easier to light than any charcoal grill ive ever had and i can get it to temp as fast as any gas grill ive had

I really want a small now to go with my large

Desert Oasis Woman

..the kind Dimple's Mom is refering, are kind of a "badge of honor" (humorously) amongst us Eggheads

Don't know if you can get one with a gasser during the cook, but you can with lighting one

Anyway, food from an Egg is like none other :woohoo:

Where do you live? Maybe an Egghead near you will offer your wife some Egged food...or maybe you can travel to an Eggfest and both sample a lot of great food :silly: :cheer:

Click on the banners at the top of the web page.

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

anyone actually been burned by a flashback? singed hair is one thing. never seen actual burns though.

Brokersmoker

The food that comes off of the egg will convince her more so than the cool to the touch comparison.